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Are you feeling tired,
rundown and overall just
bloated? Well, when was the last time you cleansed your body of things like acetaldehyde and
bilirubin? What you need is a
Detox product. I'm not talking about one of those $80 cold-pressed beet juice. No, what you need is free
and it's inside you right now in the form of your liver and your kidneys and
your skin and your intestines and your lungs and pretty much everything else in your body as it goes down ...
People talk all the time about how they need to detox. Maybe you had a really, you know,
enthusiastic weekend and now you feel like your body's accumulated a ton of crud that you need to get rid of to get healthy
And there's a line of companies a mile long waiting to sell you juices and smoothies that are supposed to clean out all that gunk somehow.
But we've got good news. Before you ever spend a dime on detox,
you've already got allies working to keep bad stuff out of your body. Take it from toxicology expert Dr. Rachel Burks.
You know when you ingest food. It's gonna. You know your stomach your intestines your liver your kidney.
I mean there's, everybody's involved like it's a party down there. As long as you're otherwise healthy your body's natural detox processes are
incredible at what they do.
They don't just let bad stuff pile up until you happen to come along with some kale. And if toxic
substances do start to accumulate in your body, then you my friend are sick
and you need more help than mere juice can provide.
But if something were to happen where person would either
voluntarily or just you know whackily get exposed to something in a weird, you know, game of thrones-esque,
escapade, then you could you would need to go to the emergency room
and get help. You would not need to go to your local
corner store and get a kale-cucumber acai berry smoothie. That is not gonna
help you, okay, so skip that. I mean it unless you love it
after the ER
get a smoothie. What do we even mean by toxins anyway? Juice commercials make toxins seem like they're a serious problem.
But they're part of life.
Frequently they come from inside your body.
Well, see that's the funny thing because you know you have this phrase detox and everyone talks about
toxins, and you're, you're eating these toxins, and they're poisoning you. And the fact that matter is,
that's not really true right some of the toxins are just part of the natural
metabolic process. When you digest food,
nutrients coming from your small intestine make a pit stop at your liver.
There anything nasty has to contend with an entire army of liver enzymes.
That goes for any toxins coming in but also any toxins that are
byproducts of your own metabolism. One of your livers jobs is to keep your own blood from
poisoning you.
No
joke. Your red blood cells die off over time and that produces toxic heme molecules from the breakdown of hemoglobin. Heme is converted into
bilirubin then passed off to your liver, and then to your small intestine where it's on its way out of your body.
There's never a time when you're not gonna have blood. I hope. Are you a vampire?
It's breaking down inside your body all the time and your own personal detox system is absolutely
gangbusters at removing it. If these toxins don't build up in your body over time you probably don't need to worry about
toxins from your food either. A group of enzymes called the cytochrome
P450 family is your liver's weapon of choice when it comes to shunting bad stuff out of your body.
These enzymes are chemical jack's-of-all- trades ready to do whatever it takes to neutralize
incoming toxic substances of every shape and size.
One of cytochrome p450s favorite tricks is to facilitate the oxidation of substances.
It adds a water-loving
hydroxyl group to some organic compound. That makes it more soluble in your bloodstream.
At that point the detox baton passes to your kidneys. Your kidneys are
constantly filtering your blood removing soluble wastes like excess nitrogen to be excreted in your urine.
The oxidized substances coming from your liver are in a perfect position to be snagged by your kidneys before they can cause you any
trouble. And what about those weekends of excess. Maybe not the weekend bender, and I think you know that's what you know medical folks
recommend is, is, the moderation is not overwhelming your own kind of chemical system.
So if anything it's, it's not detoxing. It's just having a decent diet. You know a bit of fruit and veg maybe some grains.
And, and maybe not
cheeseburgers four times a day. Wait! What! No one said I have to give up my breakfast cheeseburgers!
Oh well. Now you know. Smoothies probably won't hurt, but the hero of detox is your liver.
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Thanks to Dr.
Rachel Burks for appearing in this video. Got any other chemistry myths and misconceptions you want us to debunk? Let us know in the comments.